The much-loved newsreader, 67, died on Monday from bowel cancer after being first diagnosed in 2014.
Alagiah was best known for presenting the BBC News At Six for the last 20 years.
His colleagues at the BBC including presenters and journalists Clive Myrie, Naga Munchetty and Sophie Raworth paid moving tributes to the late newsreader.
George Alagiah saw ‘life as a gift’ in final report for the BBC
Raworth revealed at the end of Monday’s programme that Alagiah had hoped to come into the BBC studio one last time to thank the viewers but did not get the chance.
Before airing a video montage in his honour on the BBC’s News At Six, Raworth remembered Alagiah as a “man of great values and indomitable spirit”.
She recalled launching the evening news show with him 20 years in January 2003, saying that he felt “enormously proud and privileged” to be presenting the programme.
You can look back on the late newsreader’s life and career here.
“He loved being in the newsroom, being part of the team, and he made a good cup of tea as well. We all adored him,” Raworth added.
“He felt a real connection with the audience too. After he was diagnosed with cancer, just over nine years ago, he received thousands of letters and messages from people who wrote to him as if they knew each other, strangers who spoke to him as a friend.
“He was really touched by your support. George was a man of great values and indomitable spirit. A big smile of velvety love, a great friend.”
The emotional video featured clips and picture with Alagiah admitting that it had taken him time to process his bowel cancer diagnosis after he was first told.
“My life, for what it is worth, is divided into pre-cancer and post-cancer. The weird thing about a bowel cancer journey is you don’t really know the beginning and you don’t really know the end,” he shared in the video.
“So I know the day I was diagnosed with bowel cancer, but I don’t know when it started. Because I was at the top of my game, I was having a fantastic time at work and home, and then suddenly you hear those words ‘I’m sorry to tell you Mr Alagiah, you’ve got bowel cancer’.
It is with deep sadness that the BBC is announcing the death of its much-loved journalist and presenter George Alagiah.https://t.co/W5TPEKmTIP pic.twitter.com/bP5mwtjHLG
— BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) July 24, 2023
“At first when you’re told, you don’t know how to respond and it took me a while to understand what I needed to do.”
He continued: “For me, I had to get a place of contentment and the only way I knew how to do that was literally to look back at my life.
“Actually, when I look back to my journey, where it all started, looked at the family I had, the opportunities my family had, the great good fortune to bump into Fran who’s been my wife and lover for all these years. The kids that we brought up, it didn’t feel like a failure.
“I wish I hadn’t had cancer, obviously. But I have cancer and I’m glad of the things I’ve learned about myself and about my community, my friends and my family as a result
“I have gotten to a place to see life as a gift. Rather than kind of worrying about when it’s going to end and how it’s going to end, I’ve got to a place where I can see it for the gift it is. I feel that gift keenly every morning.”
